DNA now spelling more guilty verdicts

Updated 12:29 am, Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Technology and an expanding database is making DNA — the molecular building block that's unique as a fingerprint — exponentially more successful in solving crimes in Texas.

The number of crimes solved after a suspect's DNA matched with offenders' DNA samples stored in the national repository known as CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) recently passed the 10,000th mark.

The state averaged only about 200 matches a year during the first five years after the database was created in 1996.

That number leaped to an average 1,000 hits a year for the next 10 years. In just the past 11 months, the matches have nearly doubled to 1,943, records show.

Some of the high-profile CODIS matches in the San Antonio area over the past two years have included:

DNA on a Kansas City baseball cap was analyzed in 2011, leading to the arrest of Jeremiah Barefield in the 1997 slaying of Kimberly Coleman, 31. Barefield was targeting a security guard when he shot and killed Coleman, an innocent bystander.

Jose Baldomero Flores III was arrested in 2011 in connection with the death of Esmeralda Herrera, 30, who was beaten and strangled before her apartment was set on fire. DNA on a beer can in Herrera's kitchen, along with hairs, fibers, cell phone records and a bloody shoeprint, linked Flores to Herrera's slaying. However, charges were dropped against Flores. He was released from jail and the investigation into Esmeralda Herrera's death remains open.

Daniel Flores Garcia, then 49, was arrested in 2011 in a decades-old cold case after DNA connected him to the death of Marilyn McDonald. McDonald was 37 when she was beaten and stabbed to death in 1986.

Detective Robert Bunnell, one of SAPD's cold case investigators, agrees.

“SAPD has been able to identify human DNA located at crime scenes to identify suspects in cases where all other leads have been exhausted,” he said in an email. “CODIS has been an invaluable tool for investigators and assisted in the solving of some cases that may have gone unsolved otherwise.”

In the beginning, using DNA to solve crimes was not as widely accepted. It also was expensive and laboriously time-consuming to process. That's no longer the case today.

“We used to process just a dozen samples a month, but now we're averaging 400. Few other labs in the country can beat that,” said the lab's director, Dr. Roger Kahn, explaining how automation has replaced the tedious repetitive tasks once done by human hands.

The number of samples of offenders' DNA stored in Texas' database also has mushroomed to more than 660,000. Texas law requires all registered sex offenders, convicted felons sent to prison or placed on community supervision, and juveniles committed to Texas' juvenile justice system to submit a DNA specimen.

“The more samples in the pool, the greater opportunity for a match,” said Skylor Hearn, who oversees the crime lab that manages the state's database. “There is a degree of recidivism in the criminal world, and we're catching up to them.”

At the same time, the ability to make a match is increasing because DNA profiles can be developed from material that's often invisible to the eye.

“Originally, we required a blood stain the size of a quarter. Now it's not visible. A dandruff flake is enough; just touching something leaves behind cells that can be enough. The systems are much more sensitive,” Kahn said.

Harris County also has a special “CSI-style” seven-member team that it can dispatch to collect potential DNA from sensitive homicide scenes.

As a result of these advancements, Kahn said his lab was responsible for nearly 25 percent of the 10,000 crimes solved.

Of the state's 10,000 criminal cases solved to date, 643 have been homicides. Staff Writer Eva Ruth Moravec contributed to this report.

Correction: Charges were dropped against Jose Baldomero Flores III. He was released from jail and the investigation into Esmeralda Herrera's death remains open. A Jan. 2 story on page A1 of the San Antonio Express-News and on mySA.com failed to include this information.

Latest from the Chron.com Homepage

Click below for the top news from around the Houston area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page.